Theoretically I would think you would get better velocities from a boat-tailed round, since it has so much more rear surface area upon which the propellant can push. Any thoughts on that?
Also, bullet shape doesn't matter at all to some extent during supersonic flight. The only things that matter are A) does the tip create a shockwave? B) does the entire bullet ride within that shockwave? On a proper bullet design, only a small portion of the tip of the bullet should be making contact with the air, the rest of it should be in a very low pressure shell riding within the supersonic pressure wave. In knives there is a thing called edge grind. You bevel the blade down like normal, but right at the edge, you have another, much steeper angle, which is narrow enough from the main bevel to still be very sharp, but geometrically strong enough, from the edge bevel. If a bullet were to have a normal front slope taper, and then a point taper, it would probably perform much much better at supersonic speeds, and only suffer very slightly at subsonic speeds. Look at some russian plane designs for proof of this concept, as they tend to direct the pressure wave with the tip of the plane so as to force it to hit the areas they want it to, improving supersonic maneuvering and reducing drag. Some US planes do this as well, but generally it seems to be more of an afterthought, though I think the F22 in many ways is an overpriced exception.
They refer to it as pushing the envelope, but it's more than just a term, in ballistics, it would be wise to remember the envelope and just how useful taking advantage of it can be. For an experiment, try taking a few bullets you handload and making a little tip angle starting about 1-3 mm back from the tip, depending on the calibur, you could even go as far as 5-6mm on a .50BMG round, and then test it. Then make an identical batch, but use some of that teflon coat you can buy for repairing cooking pans to coat that tip angle. If I were a reloader I would play around with this sorta stuff myself, because it's a sorely overlooked aspect of bullet design, as is the nature of the angles on most bullets. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but that logic is often lost on bullet makers. With the exception of hollow ground, you don't see good quality beveled tools with a rounded angle on them.
Also, bullet shape doesn't matter at all to some extent during supersonic flight. The only things that matter are A) does the tip create a shockwave? B) does the entire bullet ride within that shockwave? On a proper bullet design, only a small portion of the tip of the bullet should be making contact with the air, the rest of it should be in a very low pressure shell riding within the supersonic pressure wave. In knives there is a thing called edge grind. You bevel the blade down like normal, but right at the edge, you have another, much steeper angle, which is narrow enough from the main bevel to still be very sharp, but geometrically strong enough, from the edge bevel. If a bullet were to have a normal front slope taper, and then a point taper, it would probably perform much much better at supersonic speeds, and only suffer very slightly at subsonic speeds. Look at some russian plane designs for proof of this concept, as they tend to direct the pressure wave with the tip of the plane so as to force it to hit the areas they want it to, improving supersonic maneuvering and reducing drag. Some US planes do this as well, but generally it seems to be more of an afterthought, though I think the F22 in many ways is an overpriced exception.
They refer to it as pushing the envelope, but it's more than just a term, in ballistics, it would be wise to remember the envelope and just how useful taking advantage of it can be. For an experiment, try taking a few bullets you handload and making a little tip angle starting about 1-3 mm back from the tip, depending on the calibur, you could even go as far as 5-6mm on a .50BMG round, and then test it. Then make an identical batch, but use some of that teflon coat you can buy for repairing cooking pans to coat that tip angle. If I were a reloader I would play around with this sorta stuff myself, because it's a sorely overlooked aspect of bullet design, as is the nature of the angles on most bullets. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but that logic is often lost on bullet makers. With the exception of hollow ground, you don't see good quality beveled tools with a rounded angle on them.
